is surrounded by a geological potpourri of scragged gorges, tooth-shaped peaks and twisted ridge fingers. West of the town, the Calatayud highway runs up a slight gradient to a pancake-flat plain around the village of Concud, about 3 mi (5 km) away. A key position was the ridge to the west of the town known as La Muela de Teruel (Teruel's Tooth). Teruel's defensive position was much improved by previously prepared trenches and barbed wire because of its position protruding into Republican territory. Combatants The Spanish Republican Army was under the command of Juan Hernández Saravia, who had reorganised the army almost from scratch. The Republicans had a total of 100,000 men in two armies. The Army of the Levante was to conduct the main part of the assault supported by the Army of the East. Saravia wanted the coup de main against Teruel to be an all-Spanish operation without the assistance of the International Brigades. Among his commanders was the trustworthy and able communist commander Enrique Líster and so Saravia chose Lister's division to lead the first assault. Colonel Domingo Rey d'Harcourt was the Nationalist commander at Teruel when the battle began. The Teruel salient had a Nationalist defending force of about 9,500 men, including civilians. After the attack began, Rey d'Harcourt eventually consolidated his remaining defenders into a garrison to defend the town. Teruel's Nationalist garrison numbered between 2,000 and 6,000 according to various estimates. The garrison was probably about 4,000, half of which were civilians. Battle Lister's Republican division attacked Teruel while snow fell on December 15, 1937 without any preliminary aerial or artillery bombardment. Lister and his fellow commander, Colonel Enrique Fernández Heredia, moved to surround the town. They immediately gained a position on the heights of La Muela, and by evening, they encircled the city. Rey d'Harcourt pulled his defenses into the town and, by December 17, had given up trying to keep a foothold on La Muela. Francisco Franco, the Nationalist commander, finally decided on December 23 to aid the defenders at Teruel since he had decided that as a matter of policy, no provincial capital would be allowed fall to the Republicans. Such a loss would be a political failure, and Franco determined to make no concession. He had just started a major offensive at Guadalajara, and the relief of Teruel forced him to abandon that offensive, much to the disgust of his